24 January 2013 – Computer Love and David Gilmour’s Guitar

It was a busy day at work, including an online training seminar, and so opportunities for listening were limited.  First up I opted for;

(75) The Orb featuring David Gilmour – Metallic Spheres

On paper this match up might seem unusual but Pink Floyd’s albums prior to Dark Side Of The Moon were, more or less, ploughing the same field as techno wizards The Orb.  Although their methods and instrumentation may have differed each act pursued widescreen, dreamlike and largely instrumental epics which were embraced by punters who liked to rave all night, with or without the benefit of chemical experimentation.  This album is divided into just two tracks, each effectively merging a few numbers with recurring flourishes and Gilmour’s vocals.  Elements of both acts are plainly audible; however, over the course of these two tracks a sort of transition takes place.  Track 1 appears to contain a number of Floydian touches especially in the opening few minutes.  As it continues these touches seem to retreat and, by the end of the album, it really is an Orb album with Gilmour’s guitar.  But that’s the fascinating thing with this one.  Every time I play it, I pick up something different and my attitude changes markedly.  But one thing remains the same and that is my love for the sound of David Gilmour’s guitar.

I’ve been entranced by Gilmour’s playing practically from the first time I heard Pink Floyd. I’ll never forget the moment.  A school friend put on Dark Side Of The Moon to demonstrate the prowess of the family stereo.  Naturally he started with On The Run and then let it run onto Time and the clocks and through to the cash registers at the start of Money.  Undoubtedly impressive as those bits were, it was the Gilmour solo on Time that remained in the memory bank. It conceivably could have been the very first guitar solo that excited me.   From then on his work became the feature I remembered most on my first listen of just about any subsequent Floyd album. On Wish You Were Here it was his playing at the start of Have A Cigar, on Animals it was his work at the end of Sheep and on The Wall it was the mother of all solos, THAT ONE at the end of Comfortably Numb. Gilmour’s playing is incredibly expressive and distinctive, yet it sounds so simple. And even though I can’t play an instrument I have no doubt whatsoever that attempting to recreate it is a tough ask.

(76) Underworld – Second Toughest In The Infants

Fortunately I own the version of the album with the bonus disc containing Born Slippy (Nuxx) and Rez after the former featured prominently in the movie adaptation of Trainspotting.  But this shouldn’t detract from the thrills the album proper delivers.  It opens sensationally with the 16 minute Juanita/Kiteless/To Dream Of love, three tracks which continually overlap each other.  Blueski, the shortest track is equally memorable, taking a lovely guitar melody and seemingly looping it so that its conclusion could have become a point of conjecture.  Rowla takes a georgeous electronic pattern that could have come straight off a Tangerine Dream or Cluster album and is then transformed by the addition of drums and some manipulation.  I could gush on about each track but the key point is this is one of the best examples of electronica one could hope to hear and, unlike much of the German 70’s acts that so obviously inspired it, you can even dance to it.